More than 50 women from all over Chicago linked arms for peace in the city during a gathering organized by Fierce Women of Faith, JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Women’s Foundation on Sept. 7.

The women, who represented more than 20 Chicago neighborhoods, affirmed that violence in one Chicago community affects the entire city. The event also highlighted the toll community violence exerts on women, families and children.

“We must become stronger than the violence that’s plaguing our communities,” said Rev. Dr. Marcenia Richards, founder of Fierce Women of Faith. “We are given a challenge: to unite amidst violence. We are here to link arms and build a platform for peace.”

As the women stood in Grant Park near the Agora sculpture, they held up cards with the names and ages of victims killed in Chicago in the last year.

Rabbi Shoshanah Conover of Temple Sholom of Chicago, who has served as the JCRC rabbinic vice chair for many years, said Chicago has “hit a grim milestone” — 512 people have been killed since the beginning of the year, already overtaking the total for all of 2015.

“When we are together, we can recognize that each person who died was a living being who had parents, who had promise of a future,” Conover said. “As we now recognize that these people’s lives were lost in this past year, we dedicate ourselves to a better Chicago where people’s lives aren’t senselessly taken.”

Other speakers during the program included Rev. Colleen Vahey from Unity Temple in Oak Park, Ammiel Mateen of the Inner-City Muslim Network, State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, and a mother who lost her son to gun violence, who reminded the crowd that those 500 lives lost represent 15,000 family survivors.

The gathering at Grant Park was part of a series of coalition-building events with Fierce Women of Faith, which organizes women to build more peaceful communities. JCRC has partnered with Fierce Women a few different times in recent months organize conversations on pressing issues impacting the city such as education, healthcare and violence prevention; participating in an On The Table discussion ; and hosting a screening of the film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”

“When we link arms together as women together, we understand that we can walk together, we can come to solutions, we can see that there is a better day upon us,” Conover said.

JCRC has a longstanding gun safety policy and has been working closely with a variety of community partners, including Fierce Women of Faith, to help raise awareness and identify solutions.